"To Everything There is a Season"

Pete Seeger and the Power of Song

Allan M. Winkler

Description

Author or coauthor of such legendary songs as "If I Had a Hammer," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and "Turn, Turn, Turn," Pete Seeger is the most influential folk singer in the history of the United States. In "To Everything There Is a Season": Pete Seeger and the Power of Song, Allan Winkler describes how Seeger applied his musical talents to improve conditions for less fortunate people everywhere. This book uses Seeger's long life and wonderful songs to reflect on the important role folk music played in various protest movements of the twentieth century.

A tireless supporter of union organization in the 1930s and 1940s, Seeger joined the Communist Party, performing his songs with banjo and guitar accompaniment to promote worker solidarity. In the 1950s, he found himself under attack during the Red Scare for his radical past. In the 1960s, he became the minstrel of the civil rights movement, focusing its energy with songs that inspired protestors and challenged the nation's patterns of racial discrimination. Toward the end of the decade, he turned his musical talents to resisting the war in Vietnam, and again drew fire from those who attacked his dissent as treason. Finally, in the 1970s, he lent his voice to the growing environmental movement by leading the drive to clean up the Hudson River. The book seeks to answer such fundamental questions as: What was the source of Seeger's appeal? How did he capture the attention and affection of people around the world? And why is song such a powerful medium?

Richly researched and crisply written, "To Everything There Is a Season": Pete Seeger and the Power of Song is an ideal supplement for U.S. history survey courses, as well as twentieth-century U.S. history and history of American folk music courses.

To purchase Pete Seeger songs discussed in the text, visit the following link for an iTunes playlist compiled by Oxford University Press:

"To Everything There is a Season"

Pete Seeger and the Power of Song

Allan M. Winkler

Author Information

Allan M. Winkler is Distinguished Professor of History at Miami University in Ohio. He has also taught at Yale University and the University of Oregon. A prize-winning teacher, he is the author or editor of ten books, including The Politics of Propaganda: The Office of War Information, 1942-1945, Home Front U.S.A.: America during World War II , Life Under a Cloud: American Anxiety about the Atom , and Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Making of Modern America. He is also co-author of the college textbook The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society and the high school textbook America: Pathways to the Present.

"To Everything There is a Season"

Pete Seeger and the Power of Song

Allan M. Winkler

Reviews and Awards

"Winkler's book is obviously a labor of love.... The book is carefully written by a scholar who identifies with Seeger and his causes.... Winkler's fine book should introduce readers to Seeger and encourage further exploration of Dunaway's scholarship. But of greater significance is the encouragement that Winkler gives his readers to listen and sing along with Seeger's music."--History News Network

"Winkler pays welcome attention to how Toshi Seeger made possible her husband's life as protester and artist -- a fact that can escape Pete."--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A remarkable testament to Seeger and his contributions to American music and culture, this informative, well-documented, yet conversational book will appeal to anyone with an interest in folk music. Essential."--A.C. Shahriari, CHOICE

"This is an excellent biography for folk-music fans, teen activists, and U.S. history buffs." --School Library Journal